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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29899311">Star wars: the jedi is forced to do it again</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/mandarin_peel/pseuds/mandarin_peel'>mandarin_peel</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adventure, Angst, Comedy, Family Feels, Fix-It, Force-Sensitive Finn (Star Wars), Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Fun, Light Angst, Other, Slow Build, Slow Burn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 18:22:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>12,173</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29899311</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/mandarin_peel/pseuds/mandarin_peel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In which I re-write the last 2 movies for spiteful reasons :)<br/>I intend to make this a long one</p><p>(My plans include better character dynamics and adventures, more people hanging out, a more concrete and satisfying stand-alone ending, finn and poe &lt;3, rose exists and rey does not forget that she is cool one movie in and unlike the movie creators, finn is my favourite so ima do this man justice to the best of my abilities!!! &lt;3!)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Poe Dameron/Finn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Not a Skywalker</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Our characters are where you expect them to be at the start of The Last Jedi, and we open exactly where we left off episode 7. (The first couple of chapters will seem like a vague re-write but it’s fun and also setting up a stronger narrative for a COMPLETELY different overall arc, you can skip a bit if you want, but I enjoyed setting up the whole thing.</p><p>Anyway, please enjoy, I love you.</p>
    </blockquote><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The first couple of scenes from the movie re-written to be a little more in character, and a little more dragged out.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Luke glanced down to the saber in Rey’s outstretched hand. His gaze lingering, vacant of expression.<br/>
Her arm trembled with adrenalin, threatening to give out despite the weapons light weight. She couldn’t quite place her emotion. Somewhere between the relief of completing her mission and the excitement, and indeed fear, of meeting the mythical Luke Skywalker face to time beaten face.<br/>
She had known of him in legend as a young, plucky kid, who selflessly left behind his comfortable life as a humble apprentice to fight for all that he believed to be good and right in such an unjust world. Knowing that he would lose his family, his freedom, perhaps even his life to save a galaxy of good people.<br/>
And here he was.<br/>
She had found herself thrust the centre of legend, meeting intergalactic hero’s that she had idolised since first hearing of them from the various scavengers sculking though the long shadows of Jakku’s rust brown evenings.<br/>
The scrappy thief, the reformed princess, their fabled companions had all scampered across the tops of her re-hydrated food portions of an eve, but none quite as often as Skywalker himself.<br/>
Han and Leia were manageable to meet. They were never the ones she sat in the sand choked hull of a retired resistance fighter fantasying about expertly locking on the death stars only known weakness alongside. The helmet she’d spent her formative youth staring through the increasingly yellowed visor of was never imagined to be theirs. The kid that Han still spoke of with a softness in his tone that was rare and raw, the brother that Leia’s eyes had had betrayed her longing to see again when the map was presented to her.<br/>
The face of the rebellion. It had always been him.<br/>
And now here he was, at the tips of her fingers, if only he would reach out his hand to finally join her and they could-<br/>
‘So, what, do you want me to sign it?’ His voice was old, and tired. The dry rasp of humour did little to hide how disused it had become.<br/>
The salt swept hand didn’t even bat the saber away as he walked past her.</p><p>Her arm didn’t fall.<br/>
She didn’t move.<br/>
Hearing the sound of Luke’s shoe tap the cobblestone of the path behind her, she turned, arm still outstretched, and said the only thing she      could think to say;<br/>
‘You’re Luke Skywalker.’<br/>
He laughed, not stopping on his descent, ‘Am I?’</p><p> </p><p>Rey called out again, a good distance behind the surprisingly spritely old man, ‘you are Luke Skywalker!’<br/>
‘Never heard of him,’ came his reply on the wind.<br/>
‘Never- everybody’s heard of Luke Skywalker! He’s a hero!’<br/>
‘Not me.’<br/>
Rey glanced over the stretch of hillside between the two of them as Luke finished on a loop of the path she was just starting and made the decision to hop onto the slick grass, using her staff as a rudder to steer her towards the hastily shuffling figure attempting to get away from her.<br/>
Losing control of her speed almost immediately she slammed herself into the retired myth who was luckily far sturdier than he appeared. Doing so knocked the wind out of him but not her, to his immediate disappointment.<br/>
‘If you’re not Luke Skywalker,’ she regained her balance fixing a hand firmly on his shoulder, ‘then what are you doing on a nothing planet in the middle of nowhere?’<br/>
He ignored her questioning again and instead looked beyond her. She turned, expecting to see something brilliant and awe-inspiring emerging from the hilltop. The jaggered line her staff had left in the supple grass was all she noticed. This line appeared to be exactly what     Luke was staring at and he shook his head slightly in resigned anger, poking a foot at the base of her muddy staff, contemplating how long it would take for it to grow back again.<br/>
Ignoring his frustration at the ruined hillside she turned back to him, ‘there was a whole map thing that led to you! We sacrificed a lot to get here you know.’<br/>
‘I’m not him.’</p><p>Rey fell back a little, what if this really wasn’t him. What if she’d wasted all this time, hurt all these people, lost Hans, hurt Finn for- Angry tears pricked at the edge of her vision.<br/>
Luke was staring at her, watching her inner dialogue unfold across the contours of her face and strike a hot track across her cheek, her brow still furrowed in indignant confusion.<br/>
He hardened his gaze and looked away, out toward the horizon, ‘Luke Skywalker is a myth. I’m sorry, I can’t help you kid. Whatever problems you’ve got you have to figure out on your own.’<br/>
‘You’re telling me,’ she spat out hotly, tightening her already fierce grip on his shoulder, ‘you’re telling me I pieced together this puzzle, followed this big stupid map all the way here for nothing. For nobody.’<br/>
He ticked his tongue at that, ‘no need to be rude, I’m not nobody.’<br/>
‘Who’d make a map to lead to you,’ Rey’s anger was palpable now, she knew this had to be him. He was the right age, the right species, the man had a metal arm sure but that wasn’t inconceivable! She was sure she’d imagined something like that in her late nights fantasising the further adventures of Luke Skywalker, cosmic hero. ‘just some lonely old man?’<br/>
‘Maybe they’re a fan of my writing.’ He shrugged Rey’s hand off his shoulder and continued on his way down the mountain.<br/>
She didn’t move, mouth opening and closing like a fish soundlessly.<br/>
Her voice rang down over the rippling hillside, ‘your writing?’ She echoed, the ocean bouncing her own voice back to her, her indignant tone reverberating softly around, slowly swallowed by the sounds of the sea crashing into the rocks and the click of Luke’s shoes against the cobblestone path.</p><p>---</p><p>General Hux’s sneering tone echoed imposingly off of the walls of his command ships main hull, ‘give the order to Captain Canady to prime his dreadnaught. The resistance is mid-evacuation, they’re vulnerable.’ He savoured those precious syllables, vulnerable.<br/>
‘This is our chance,’ he barked, then turning his gaze to the massive expanse of cold, conquerable space spread before him through the ship’s windshield, ‘this is a real opportunity to wipe out their entire fleet for good.’<br/>
His pleasure was interrupted by a woman’s voice, ‘general Hux I believe a small ship, a uh, single light fighter is approaching, presumably rebel in nature. I’ll scan to see if it-‘<br/>
‘Disintegrate the thing.’ He spat, clearly displeased with the interruption to his fantasy, ‘use a smaller cannon, whatever bead you can get on it. I won’t have some suicide bomber ruining this moment.’<br/>
She nodded curtly, turning back to her station and mumbling something to the person next to her.<br/>
The General stood around pensively, feeling momentarily useless before turning to a figure hurrying past him at random and hissing, ‘any word of Ren, where is he?’<br/>
The young man stammered, unsure of where he would even go to find the person to ask of the leaders’ whereabouts. Hux hissed through his teeth and batted the young man away dismissively almost immediately.</p><p>   Having not heard the firing of a cannon since giving the order Hux turned back to the woman who had alerted him of the light fighter and directed his discomfort in her direction, ‘well? What’s the holdup?’<br/>
She was pressing buttons frantically, as were a few next to her, all of them frantically focused on a signal flitting from bullseye to bullseye. ‘Ah, my apologies sir it’s hard to pinpoint, the pilot is dodging eyelines quicker than we can get a bead on them. They appear to sit in front of the line of fire just long enough to notice before jumping into the weapons blind spot.’<br/>
General Hux seethed, ‘what do our cannons have blind spots for?’<br/>
She apologised again, ‘sir they are not designed for close contact firing, there is only a small window of firing room before risking hitting the ship itself.’ She gasped then groaned outwardly, clearly having lost the ship again.<br/>
‘Well, sort it out.’ He hissed, turning back to stare out the windshield again.<br/>
He ground the heel of his thick leather boot into the tile below him, clenching and unclenching his hands as he strained his ears for the tell-tale chaos of the young brat returning to resume power.<br/>
As he did so, a voice crackled into the headphones of a nearby scan technician, ‘hello hello, attention attention, this is commander Poe Dameron of the of the rebublic fleet, I have an urgent communicae for General Hugs I repeat-‘<br/>
‘I have a Commander Poe Dameron from the republic fleet here for you General,’ she called to the imperial figurehead.<br/>
‘Comander who?’ He spat, ‘I don’t-‘<br/>
Poe’s voice suddenly snapped out of the speakers overhead, ‘-ae for General Hugs, I repeat, I am Commander Poe-‘<br/>
‘What are you doing,’ Hux scowled at the girl as she frantically threw her headset off, ‘I didn’t ask for this.’<br/>
‘I'm sorry sir, I didn’t do that he appears to be patching himself through I can’t-‘<br/>
‘Well patch me through to him then!’ He called over the looping message.</p><p>   ‘This is General Hux of the first order, Commander. The republic is no more. You hear me? Your so-called fleet are rebel scum,’ he spat, ‘and  war criminals. You can tell your so-called princess that we will wipe her and your entire gang of rust buckets off the pages of history and your memory out of this galaxy. There will be no terms, no surrender.<br/>
No. Mercy.’</p><p>   Hux let the words sizzle in the air.<br/>
‘…Hi, I’m holding for general Hugs?’<br/>
The general glared at the technician and she nodded fervently to indicate that he was patched through, ‘this is him. You and your entire cause is doomed t-‘<br/>
‘Ok, I’ll hold. It’s important though.’<br/>
Hux whirled around and stomped up to the now frantically confused technician who was reading and re-reading positive stats to herself in cold sweat, ‘he-he should be able to hear you! I’m not sure what’s wrong, there could be a problem with his speaker system?’<br/>
‘Is there any other way to communicate that to him,’ Hux hissed scanning his gaze over the rows of numbers constantly changing on the screen in front of her, ‘can’t you utilise-‘ he stuck a gloved finger confidently at a particular set of numbers.<br/>
She was hesitant to reply, ‘can I utilise… the forcefield detector? ...sir?’ she asked rhetorically, nodding to the clear label beside it.<br/>
He bristled openly and screamed as quietly as he could muster, ‘well there could be a problem with his shields interrupting my replies!’ He insisted.<br/>
She shook her head to herself, ‘no, that would impede exiting signal as well, besides, I don’t believe this model has a successful shield system in place unless it’s modded t-‘<br/>
He cut her off, ‘I know that I-‘ and suddenly aware of a room full of eyes on his back he stood up sharply, narrowly avoiding smacking his head on an overhanging monitor and spat, ‘sort it out.’</p><p>-</p><p>Directly outside shoved into the grubby cockpit of that third-hand fighter Poe nimbly skirted himself out of what he knew to be the firing line of yet another cannon, ducking behind where the shot would definitely pierce the hull if fired. This gave him at least a good ten seconds to collect himself before another viable weapon was pointed.<br/>
This was most definitely a 10 seconds he needed as he was now holding a physical hand over his mouth to keep from laughing, desperately pulling again at the stuck down ‘out’ button on his communication system. The thing would not budge.<br/>
He needed to keep Hux distracted for long enough to reach full charge in his hyper jump and in order to do so, he needed to keep them just distracted enough to avoid hitting him.<br/>
BB-8 was taking care of patching him through the first orders surprisingly thin security surrounding their speaker system.<br/>
As the cannon to Poe’s right didn’t turn to target him, Poe made a triumphant fist into BB’s line of view, letting the clever little droid know they had a chance to sit and charge.<br/>
BB-8 burbled something excitedly that carried through the hollow body of the ship. Poe was quick to swing a hand back to wave the droid into silence, but not quick enough.<br/>
‘Hello?’ Hux’s increasingly frustrated tone, then, more quietly as if to someone beside him ‘what was that sound.’<br/>
He knew he couldn’t ignore that, he had to seem innocent, ‘Hello? Yep, still here.’<br/>
‘Can you- can he hear me now?’<br/>
‘Is this General Hugs of the galactic empire?’<br/>
‘He can?’<br/>
‘Hugs? With an H?’<br/>
‘He-‘<br/>
‘Skinny guy… kinda pasty?’<br/>
Hux sucked in an indignant breath, ‘I can hear you; can you hear me?!’<br/>
‘Yeah, Hugs?’<br/>
‘No, not ‘hugs’ it’s-‘<br/>
‘Oh.’ Poe interrupted, eyes locked on the loading screen, ‘can you patch me through to him? It’s urgent.’<br/>
‘This is him!’ Hux spat, far off the end of his tether. ‘Th-‘<br/>
‘Oh, you said it-‘<br/>
‘W-‘<br/>
‘No sorry it’s just you said it wasn’t general Hugs of the empire, so I got confused I’m sorry, please continue.’<br/>
‘No it’s not the-‘<br/>
‘Then who is this?’<br/>
‘THIS IS GENERAL HUX OF THE FIRST ORDER.’ Came a roar through the ships busted speaker system, clipping out at maximum capacity.<br/>
Poe waved a hand around in a frantic attempt not to laugh and was only just able to level his voice enough to reply, ‘oh, ok. Not the empire?’<br/>
‘No! Not the empire! We rose from the ashes of the empire!’<br/>
Poe’s eyes widened at the unfiltered drama of the statements Hux was willing to pull out of his ass. He adjusted his helmet and replied, ‘wait, so you came second then?’<br/>
‘Yes, what is this call per-‘<br/>
‘So why call yourself the first order, that doesn’t really make sense,’ fighting back tears.<br/>
There was silence. Poe could hear a few broken voices laughing quietly on the other end.<br/>
‘Take it down.’<br/>
‘No! No, no, sorry just a mix up.’ Poe sprang forward reflexively, ‘sorry yes I have the right guy now, yes?’<br/>
‘Halt, yes, you have General Hux.’ Poe wasn’t sure what sort of ego trip in gathering secret intel was stopping Hux from blasting him out of the stratosphere, but he was choosing to count his lucky stars.<br/>
‘Of the first order, not the empire?’<br/>
‘Yes. That’s correct.’<br/>
‘Brilliant. What do you want?’ Poe was eyeing up the red bar as it appeared to creep slower toward completion.<br/>
‘I beg your pardon?’<br/>
‘Why did you call me?’<br/>
‘You requested to speak to me, rebel scum.’<br/>
‘Oh, right, right sorry. Yeah, general uh Leia has an urgent message to give to you.’<br/>
A beat, still not there, ‘what?’<br/>
‘Is the message?’<br/>
‘Yes, what is the message.’<br/>
‘Oh, right,’ Poe tapped his foot anxiously as the last few millimetres filled, ‘the message. It’s uh-‘ He grinned, ‘it’s about your mother.’<br/>
‘OPEN FI-‘ Hux’s voice was sliced as the communicator connecting them severed ties.<br/>
‘Oh shit,’ Poe muttered to himself as he twisted his body to scream behind him, ‘BB-8, PUNCH IT!’</p><p>-</p><p>   ‘-RE.’ Hux screamed out into the room. He glared at each in turn before snatching his gaze back to the now visible ship.<br/>
A red-headed man’s cheeks are quick to flare in anger. Hux, a blazing match head, saw how the crew treated him as nothing more than that, a match. A game, a substitute. There was little time left to his momentary reign, he would make the most of it. These insubordinates might not give him the respect he deserves, but he can take out this joker.<br/>
Watching where the fighter turned, Hux chuckled to himself, ‘heading for the dreadnaught, is he? Hasn’t a hope.’<br/>
Then, to the room, ‘don’t bother, he’ll wipe himself out. He must be just a distraction, keep your eyes peeled for any other small ships coming in. They might pose a real threat.’<br/>
To the woman who had brought his attention to Poe’s ship in the first place, ‘but do make sure he doesn’t leave too bad of a stain on he hull, won’t you.’<br/>
She gulped and nodded slightly, turning back to watch Poe as a dot on her screen, switching from cannon to cannon, finger poised to press the fire button.</p><p>-</p><p>‘FIRE BB-8!’<br/>
The little droid perched in pride of place behind Poe chirruped excitedly as he open fired on the imperial ships biggest and most bad-news looking gun they could see.<br/>
The first order had been right in their assessment of the rebellion’s vulnerability, but Poe figured it’d be a much more even playing field if these guys suddenly found themselves with no means of attack. They’d end up as two galactic superpowers standing awkwardly in the endless expanse between stars. Utterly useless.<br/>
That was the ideal outcome of course. It was either that or Poe became a bit of space trash in the first orders grimy wake.</p><p>-</p><p>   ‘You’ve got a skywalker complex, Dameron.’ Leia reprimanded him as he walked in, shaking his sweat-stiffened hair back into shape.<br/>
‘Ah, come on general,’ Poe shrugged off her comment with his battered helmet, ‘you’ve always been one to help them weasel their way outta trouble, haven’t you? What’s another walker in your wake.’<br/>
She fixed him with a stare cold enough to re-set his hair in place, ‘I am not here to fix your problems, kid. I have a rebellion to run. A rebellion you’re undermining my authority to.’<br/>
Poe ducked out of her line of view and offered, ‘well, it turned out alright. Nothing for you to fix. We were in a vulnerable position and I took steps to ensure our safety.’ He parroted what he imagined the general’s way of speaking to be, ‘The mission was a complete success.’<br/>
‘This time. I’m beginning to notice a pattern Dameron, and it’s not one that I like.’<br/>
‘Que sera sera, with all due respect, ma’am.’<br/>
‘I’m not feeling what I am due. I have a standard to uphold for every one of my pilots and I cannot be wasting my time on a plucky young upstart.’<br/>
‘Honestly general, I’m telling you I’m not a Skywalker.’<br/>
‘I don’t believe you.’</p><p>---</p><p>   ‘I’m telling you I’m not Skywalker.’<br/>
‘And I’m telling you I don’t believe you! And I certainly don’t believe this author thing either.’<br/>
‘Oh no, that’s very real,’ Luke had led the pair of them to a crude village of neat little dome huts. Small, amphibian-esque women weaved their way around them, ignoring their visitors entirely. The species that Rey had never seen before were short and resembled their homes to a degree, neat, rounded, and perhaps a little too short. This was a mental note Rey made as she found herself having to duck down to enter the hut that Luke was entering. Sparsely decorated with what appeared to be a hand-made desk and chair from a few rocks and bits of wood, a bed as old as the wall it jutted from and a few piles of dried-seaweed bound books.<br/>
‘Here, take a look,’ Luke passed her one at random, ‘they’re not polished of course, but a man needs a hobby you know. Something to keep the mind sharp.’<br/>
Rey thumbed the cover, letting it slap back against the hand-pulped paper.<br/>
‘That one’s good actually,’ Luke continued, rummaging around a string bag attached to the wall, ‘I started drawing these little pictures of the uh,’ he gestured vaguely at one of the women trundling a wheelbarrow past, she grunted in return, ‘the guardians or whatever. Everyone's gotta have a good hobby you know.’<br/>
He found what he had been reaching for and turned back to Rey, pausing in his tracks.<br/>
Her anger had dried.<br/>
‘What do you think you’re doing?’<br/>
He pretended not to notice the hostility in her tone, pretended that it didn’t make the hair on the back of his neck to prickle uncomfortably,   ‘what am I doing? What’re you doing, kid.’<br/>
He made his way toward the door, Rey stuck her arm out violently, staff crashing into the stone doorframe with enough force to shake the dust from it.<br/>
‘I came here for the help of Luke Skywalker.’<br/>
Luke’s eyes weren’t tired anymore, there was a despondent glaze falling over them, ‘kid, I will keep saying it until you can get it through your head. I can’t help you. My fight is over.’<br/>
‘I’m not asking you to fight.’<br/>
‘Then what are you asking me for,’ he sighed, eying the book being slowly crumpled in her iron grip, ‘I’m assuming it isn’t writing tips.’<br/>
Her gaze followed his and she noticed the wrinkled cover, the fanning pages and relaxed her hand quickly before turning back to him.<br/>
‘I want you to train me.’<br/>
An ice cold gate shut down over Lukes gaze and he laughed, without mirth, a cruel barking noise that spoke more to disbelief than humour.<br/>
‘I want to become a Jedi,’ she continued, Luke wouldn’t meet her gaze, ‘I’m force sensitive, I’ve, I’ve used a Jedi mindtrick, I’ve thrown things I can, I, I met Maz and I,’ she fumbled at her belt, pulling the saber out and letting go of her staff, which remained in place, ‘I found your saber, it called to me, through the force.’<br/>
A childlike excitement was filling her from tip to toe, ‘I’ve always known I was destined to be a Jedi,’ she took a breath, leaving a beat for Luke to return her impassioned gaze.<br/>
He didn’t.<br/>
‘Good people are in danger, it’s my duty to protect them.’<br/>
With those words he seemed to age in front of her, growing cold and stiff to match the sea salt slicked walls around him. But he still didn’t move to walk past her.<br/>
Placing the book gently on the ground next to her foot she gently unstuck her staff, a little rain of pebbles showered from it as she leant it against the wall, opening the door to let him leave if he wanted to. She nervously passed the saber from palm to palm before gripping it reverentially with both hands and slowly extending them, ‘please. I need you Luke Skywalker.’ Her words were light enough to be whisked away on the breath of the wind.<br/>
He let out a slow, quiet sigh.<br/>
Rey took this as good news, despite the pain it seemed to inflict and pressed her hands forward a little more eagerly, trying to return the antiquity to its rightful owner.<br/>
This shocked Luke out of his statue-esque state just enough for his arm lashing out in a frustrated swipe to knock the saber from her grip.<br/>
A momentary flash of inspiration crossed Rey’s mind, if she caught it using the force this could be the punctuation to her application.<br/>
Before the thought had even finished forming the saber was already in Lukes grip. He had dived quicker than she had realised him capable of and he was still doubled over holding it, so gently.<br/>
He rose, slowly, not taking his eyes off of it.<br/>
‘Who are you.’ He finally broke the silence.<br/>
She bristled with anticipation and spoke her name, true and proud, ‘Rey.’<br/>
‘From?’<br/>
‘Jakku, no last name as I never knew my parents. They left me there, but I knew they would come back for me one day,’ she surprised herself with how little confidence she had spoken those words with, ‘I met a droid on my planet and helped rescue him and my friend Finn, a defected stormtrooper, and with his and the entirety of the resistance’s help we got the droid back and gathered all the pieces of your map. The empire has re-birthed itself under the rule of Kylo Ren, he’s strong with the force, without your training we don’t stand a chance against him. You’re the last Jedi. Our last hope.’<br/>
That got a quiet chuckle, ‘did Leia say that to you?’<br/>
Rey wasn’t sure how to respond, but he didn’t give her the chance.<br/>
‘Kid, I don’t know what that rebellion has taught you, but you aren’t the universes last hope.’<br/>
Rey was taken aback by his words. She had never thought of herself as important enough to be the universes saviour. She just knew that she was the only one who’s natural sensitivity to the force might be able to hold Ren’s as the rest of their side’s raged war.<br/>
He put his hand that was still his own, not some metal imitation, to his forehead, sighing. Finally, looking up to meet her gaze, ‘just let the jedi die.’<br/>
She stood there in shock as he reluctantly handed back the last reminder he had of his legacy and stepped through the door of the hut into the stirrings of a storm. Pulling the hood of his cloak up around his face to protect it from the grey mist of rain dawning on the mountainside he walked away. She didn’t turn to see the direction.<br/>
Instead, she sunk to the floor, a cold wind at her back whisking rain around her form, mingling with the hot tears she let fall amongst it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Wake up, I'm right here</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The gang's all here!! Wooooo!!!!!!<br/>(except greasy guy ngl)<br/>(This is where I properly start fucking around with the plot a bit so let go of the cannon events a little, we building a story, girls)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Finn jerked his head upward, smacking his forehead onto the medical bubble above him.<br/>
‘What’s going-’ he spat into a tube sticking out of his mouth, wiggling his togue around until it fell out. ‘Yuck.’<br/>
He fought to wrestle his stiff, chemically weakened body into a sitting position, but the bubble was really in his way. An unfamiliar droid whizzed into the room on a little track making a series of frantic beeps.<br/>
Finn didn’t speak droid, ‘what? Open this stupid thing! Where even am I?’</p><p>He obviously didn’t expect an actual response, it was more to jog the fog of his spiralling subconscious into linear memory.<br/>
Nope.<br/>
He could catch glimpses of memories, a blinding red light, cold air rasping through ragged branches and the dull metallic taste of blood at the tip of his tongue before his memory sent him spinning to Jakku, to a heavy visor doing what it could to cut his emotions off from his dirty hands. He couldn’t keep a thought on track.<br/>
Damn, he tried tugging at various obvious hinges of the bubble to no avail and noticed for the first time that he was almost completely naked, save for a hospital gown and a jacket made of clear substance and suspicious liquid.<br/>
‘AArrhhg,’ he yelled at the innocent little droid, ‘what’s all this?’ His eyes widened in horror, glancing wildly around the room for signs of the first order, ‘have you kidnapped me? I can’t be back in this-’<br/>
Suddenly a memory snapped back into place and he yelled out almost involuntarily, utterly drowning out the nervous medical bot’s squeaks as it rushed out of the room,<br/>
‘REY!’</p><p>-</p><p>‘Hey, hey now little buddy,’ Poe laughed as BB-8 smacked into his leg, ‘what, what are you picking up?’<br/>
The little droid was swivelling its head around, attempting to pick up some signal it had caught a few stray strands of on their little antenna sticking lopsidedly out from their head.<br/>
BB froze in place and held position for a few seconds before excitedly screeching a stream of raw data at their companion.<br/>
Poe blinked in surprise, shaking his head slightly before his eyes widened in excitement, ‘really? You’re sure you’ve got the right droid?’<br/>
BB swivelled excitedly to reassure.<br/>
Poe bobbed down into a squat and slapped a hand onto the droid’s side, spinning their body around excitedly as they beeped, ‘great job buddy, lead the way.’</p><p>-</p><p>Poe stood at the door of the medical bay, pressing buttons frantically as Leia walked up behind him, dutifully following the medical droid who had come to fetch her.<br/>
‘Dameron.’<br/>
He didn’t look up, ‘it’s not 12345, I tried that, 54321 was nothing too, I’m thinking 6-‘<br/>
Leia clicked her tongue impatiently and waved her hand in front of the panel, unlocking the door.<br/>
‘I assume you won’t kill him.’<br/>
Poe was a little taken aback by the sign of trust the general was extending to him given the circumstances, but nodded respectfully and gave a mock salute as he headed in. He then proceeded to left down the row of medical pod-doors.<br/>
‘Right,’ Leia called half-heartedly over her shoulder as she walked away, chuckling at the footsteps passing behind her as Dameron tripped over his droid in an attempt to correct his direction.<br/>
‘Take all the time you want, Commander,’ she turned to call after him before muttering to herself, ‘it’s not as if you’ll be able to do much else.’</p><p> </p><p>The medical bot pressed its own door-button for Poe and he stuck his head in, ‘heeello?’<br/>
‘AH!’ Finn slapped his forehead onto the bubble again, ‘ow, are you here to break me out?’ He hissed. His eyes wide and dewy with medicated adrenalin.<br/>
‘What? No, you’re safe buddy,’ he laughed stepping into the room, ‘nice to see you too.’ Looking over the whole situation going on before him Poe was a little taken aback. He knew that the two of them had gotten into a pretty serious fight out there, but as the ex-storm trooper had been rushed past him, he hadn’t had a chance to properly survey the damage done. Judging by the number of tubes stuck into the guy, it hadn’t been insignificant. He mentally thanked that Jakku girl again, she seemed to have made a real hobby out of collecting his lost friends.<br/>
While he was happy to re-assure the guy of his immediate safety, he was careful to leave out any lingering worries of the state he was in, a little dried blood still congealed at the corner of Finns’ lip.<br/>
Finns entire body relaxed, and he lulled his head back before letting out a relieved sigh, ‘wow, I could not handle another escape mission,’ he laughed a little deliriously.<br/>
Poe glanced around at the various labelled bags attached to Finn’s front, trying to figure out what pain medication was making him space out this hard.<br/>
Finn gasped loudly, a memory resurfacing, and hit his forehead on the bubble again as he tensed himself up, ‘where’s Rey? The last thing I remember was she was fighting the Kylo on that big bomb planet that we blew up-‘ He cut himself off, frowning.<br/>
‘Hang on… am I… dead?’<br/>
Poe blinked in surprise, taken aback by the sincerity.<br/>
Before, of course, cracking up at the poor guy as he walked over to talk to him from a better angle, ‘No, we got you off of the exploding planet I promise.’<br/>
Finn’s expression was not one of reassurance, ‘I’m not going to lie, I’m having a hard time believing you on that one.’<br/>
‘Well, you’re gonna have to take my word for it,’ he chuckled, watching BB-8 circle the slightly peeved medical droid, ‘we got you both off fine.’<br/>
‘Both?’ Finn spaced out a second before returning to consciousness, ‘oh! Rey! Is she ok? Where is she?’<br/>
‘She’s probably fine.’<br/>
‘Probably? Is she hurt? Did she kill the other guy uh-‘<br/>
‘Kylo Ren?’<br/>
‘Yeah, did she?’<br/>
‘No and no,’ Poe replied matter of-factly, ‘she beat his ass but I’m willing to bet the twerp got away. She’s currently on route to find Skywalker.’<br/>
Finn visibly sank at that, ‘alone?’<br/>
Poe could read subtext well enough, ‘yeah.’<br/>
Finn frowned, the expression slowly smoothed out as his gaze went a little glassy, he then blinked indignantly and turned his head back to Poe, ‘can you unplug me from this thing? One of these chemicals is making my brain turn into chuddle.’<br/>
‘Into what?’<br/>
Finn screwed up his face, chasing a train of thought, ‘wookie food. Now why can I remember that but not the name of the dude who tried to murder me in a forest, I’m begging you man I cannot think straight.’<br/>
‘I dunno, it doesn’t seem like a good idea, how’s your back feeling?’<br/>
Finns entire face opened in the surprise of that particular memory resurfacing, ‘oh…’<br/>
Poe nodded and gave a half-hearted chuckle, ‘yeah, fuck.’<br/>
Finn, a life-long stormtrooper was a little unused to incorporating swearwords into his life, but this seemed an appropriate occasion, ‘yeah,’ he rolled his head back up to face the ceiling, ‘fuck.’<br/>
A few moments passed, ‘I mean it feels fine. I just want to sit up.’<br/>
Poe had no idea how quickly galactic medicine worked, but he had a lot of faith.<br/>
‘I mean-‘ BB-8 cut him off with an indignant series of beeps and he laughed, embarrassed.<br/>
Finn strained to stare at the droid, who rolled to more comfortably sit in his view, ‘what? What did it say?’<br/>
‘Well BB here pointed out that if you’re feeling good, that's probably a sign we shouldn’t unplug you.’<br/>
Finn let out a chuckle. His face slowly turned blank and he turned back to Poe and said, ‘hang on, I forgot what you said, can you repeat that?’</p><p>---</p><p>Rey was sitting on Luke’s bed now, repeating her speech in her head, searching for the point she’d lost him.<br/>
She’d done a lot of sitting and thinking in her time. It was usually some pretty wobbly math by her count, trying to figure out if she had collected enough to be able to eat for the next few days. She found herself missing that simplicity now, people were difficult.<br/>
No, Luke was difficult. She felt like his old friends had already warned her of that but who was she to take advice from anyone.<br/>
The rain was coming down more insistently now, pulling the deep blues and slate greys of her view through the door further into the gathering darkness. The individual drops sharply catching the remains of the light closing over the top of the hill, cutting through the misty evening like a dagger through the air. Like a saber through snow.<br/>
"You need a teacher; I can show you the ways of the force."<br/>
She clenched her fist, hair on the back of her neck prickling. Luke’s stack of books tumbled to the ground.<br/>
‘Shit,’ she muttered under her breath, wiping her nose of a stray bit of cloth from her outfit she knelt to pick them up.<br/>
Remembering the volume she’d abandoned at the huts door she turned to pick it up. It had been soaked by the rain and she cursed under her breath as she tried to beat some of the water out. Seeing that that had little effect, she pulled the saber from her belt unthinkingly and lit it up, intending to use the dry heat of the thing to evaporate some of the water off of it.<br/>
The tip of it shot clean through the wall.<br/>
‘Ah fuck me,’ she hissed, quickly retracting it and putting the book hastily back onto the pile. Tactically choosing to ignore the scent of singed seaweed, that was probably fine.<br/>
Leaning down a little, she peered through to see if the hole had made it all the way through the stone. A very displeased wizened little face stared witheringly back at her, bonnet drenched and wrinkles guttering the rain running down her stocky form.<br/>
Not knowing how to react, Rey waved awkwardly at the creature and offered a half-hearted, ‘sorry, my bad.’<br/>
The little old woman creaked a reply in an unmistakably sarcastic tone and continued on her way. There was nothing she could do about it, no use getting mad.<br/>
Rey nodded wisely, she was right, what use was there in getting mad? Clearly, Luke had no intention of being any kind of help. There must be someone else who was willing to take her on as an apprentice. Maz had at least shown pretty good knowledge of the force, Leia had a handle on it to some degree. Anyone would do. Who’d decided Jedi made the best teachers anyway?<br/>
‘Yeah, fuck the Jedi.’ The further she went down this particular track the more convinced Rey had made herself. She didn’t need him.<br/>
‘Fuck it all. I’ll figure something out.’ She span the retracted saber in a smooth circle before clipping it onto her belt. (That had been her intention, in reality she had to flip it right-side up before being able to successfully clip it in, but in her mind the movement was still cool.)</p><p>Turning to the door she picked up her staff and bent down to clear the doorway, wrapping the draping parts of her clothes around her head to shield herself from the rain. She’d just head back to the falcon, return to the base. She’d figure it out. No problem.<br/>
She collided with something.<br/>
It was that same little woman.<br/>
‘Oh,’ she squinted into the mist, ‘pardon me.’<br/>
The woman didn’t move. She was blocking the way. Up close the wrinkles on her face appeared less to be navigating the rain on her, but rather formed by it. Like she was a great rock carved out by the forces of nature.<br/>
‘Uh.’ Rey said uselessly. The rain was more than uncomfortable.<br/>
She glanced down and saw clearly now that the woman was holding what appeared to be an oversized cork, the type for a jar or comically large bottle. Her confusion now clearly painted across her wrinkled brow.<br/>
The creature gestured with it back into the hut Rey had just stepped out of and a good couple of pieces clicked into place in Rey’s head. She yelled over the roar of the rain, ‘you want me to plug up the hole?’<br/>
Satisfied with the clarity in Rey’s expression, the woman turned her hand upside down and dropped the cork, Rey’s own hand only just flicking out in time to grab it, ‘uh, sure.’<br/>
She ducked back inside and carefully, if a little bemusedly, stuck the cork into the lightly scorched hole in the stonework. The lichen at the edges of it had burnt away in a mesmerising pattern that she lost herself in as she tapped the stopper firmly into place.<br/>
When done, she turned back to the doorway to let the old woman know, but she was gone. In her place, Rey could now see more clearly toward the hut directly opposite her.<br/>
Luke sat inside, watching.</p><p>---</p><p>Rose scrunched up her nose indignantly, watching her configure a panel of buttons ‘how come you get all the cool jobs,’ she sneered at her older sister.<br/>
Paige laughed and stuck her head out from the top of the cockpit, ‘I had to put up with your sorry ass since you were born, this is the least I deserve.’<br/>
Rose threw her hands up, ‘that doesn’t mean shit! You never even wanted to be a resistance hero, you wanted to live with a buncha dumb aliens or whatever.’<br/>
‘Ewoks aren’t dumb,’ Paige called down, now sitting back in her seat, carefully calibrating, ‘they’re cool! You’d know that if you’d actually taken the time to read through the texts that got me this job in the first place.’<br/>
Rose pouted again; she had read them. Understanding them was an entirely separate matter, she thought, shining a bomb at random. This wasn’t technically her job, but she was happy to side-step a dusty corner of the base to spend some time with her sister. They hadn’t gotten a lot of time to themselves recently. Paige had been so tied up in her new responsibilities.<br/>
Rose had always known she wasn’t the prodigy sister, Paige was always the one who shot for the stars and just look at where she’d landed, among them. Meeting Leia was a flex Paige had held over Rose’s head for weeks.<br/>
It wasn’t like Rose didn’t try. There was nothing that motivated her like the thought of really being a part of something important, something galaxy shifting, something lifesaving. Maybe that’d been her downfall. She was all passion, no precision. She didn’t have the steady hand of a pilot, but she had the blazing heart of a hero that she kept clenched firmly in her fist until it burnt. Burnt hands don’t wrench the right gearstick of a flight simulator. The cold, spinning expanse of digital space still played on the backs of Rose’s eyelids when she went to sleep. A ghost of potential haunting her last few moments of alone time.</p><p>She couldn’t be cool and collected like Paige, if Rose was honest with herself, she felt like she was her foil. A useless little sheet of metal that showed just how hard Paige could shine under pressure. Where Roses hero-heart melted into fear and confusion, Paige’s sharpened and pointed with laser accuracy firmly forward, the directing a resistance should go in.</p><p>But a janitor in the resistance was better than nothing.<br/>
That was good enough to get her to sleep at night.<br/>
Digital space nightmare be damned, right?</p><p>‘So, what’s the plan again?’ She called up.<br/>
‘Actually,’ Paige replied, ‘it’s still classified!’<br/>
‘C’moooonnn,’ Rose whined, ‘you know I won’t tell. Who would I even say anything to, it’s not like I know anyone.’<br/>
Paige sucked in a mock-worried breath and called back, ‘I don’t know, I was told this is pretty serious business and I wouldn’t want you to go blabbing to your boyfriend.’<br/>
‘My-‘ Rose began, confused, before realising what her sister was alluding to, ‘oh fuck oofff!’<br/>
Paige honked a laugh, ‘awww, did I embarrass you?’<br/>
Slapping the pink out of her cheeks she pressed her palms over her eyes and called up, ‘it’s not even a crush. I’ve never even seen him in person!’<br/>
‘Oooh, but that holo was-‘<br/>
‘Shut uuuppp,’ Rose groaned.<br/>
‘Tell you what,’ Paige grinned, slamming onto all fours and leaning back over the edge, ‘I’ll tell you what I’m off to today and if you tell a soul-‘<br/>
Rose shook her head fervently.<br/>
‘-I get to tell anyone I meet about your little crush on the stormtrooper.’<br/>
She was ready to promise anything, ‘done!’</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I think that Rey swears a lot and is just a messy, stinky girl and thats a very sexy decision for me to make.<br/>also, i fully intend to give rose the characterisation she deserves and i hope it shows.</p><p>unrelated but I did not expect anyone to like actually look at this so to come back and see 11 people showed up to see whats up is kind of exhilarating ngl. thank you for reading!!! it means the world<br/>(hope im using these notes appropriately)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Clear communication is key</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Some well placed plans begin to play out, then fall flat. Whether they were aiming for a house of cards or a line of dominos remains to be seen.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Idk wth im doing with the chapter titles or descriptions!! aaaaa</p><p>Oh, not sure if this impacts ur reading but i am using they/them pronouns for bb-8 throughout this because i would like to do that. (just adding it in case u were wondering! &lt;3)</p><p>also one - is a time/space hop with the same characters or a hop between characters interacting at the same time to show different perspective but --- is switching to a different scene altogether</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Paige, propped up against the base of the ladder nodded, ‘yeah, he was basically just scoping the place out.’<br/>
Rose squinted, ‘you sure he didn’t just like, fuck it up and is using the scoping out thing as an excuse? Because that does seem like the sort of thing he’d do.’<br/>
‘What do you mean? You’ve never even met him,’ Paige shook the packet of freeze-dried fruits at Rose and she leant forward to take one. Biting down it split into powdery shards, a once supple soft fruit packed and shipped out to the resistance, a shadow of their former kind form. Still tasty though.<br/>
‘You forget, I fix their ships,’ she said through a mouthful, ‘I know what pilots are like, ok. They make mistakes first and excuses later. And leave their shit in an incredible state.’<br/>
Paige laughed, ‘alright, but he relayed to us after that he was just seeing what sort of condition the dreadnaught is in so that people like me,’ she slapped a hand onto a row of bombs, sending a shockwave of rattles back into the ship, ‘can come in and drop these bad boys into the weak spot.’<br/>
‘Ha!’ a few drops of red shot out of Roses mouth, ‘see, after. He was just making excuses.’<br/>
Paige nodded, ‘I mean I'm sure the general would agree. It’s just a matter of time before I get the call out and we get the satisfaction of blowing that hunk of junk out of the cosmos.’ Her sentence punctuated by an only semi-ironic finger gun. 'Pew pew.'<br/>
Rose pulled the packet out of her sisters’ grip and tipped her head back, upending the crumbs into her open mouth, ‘like the deathstar.’<br/>
Paige snatched it back, getting the last few bits for herself and coughed out a small cloud of rusty dust, ‘exactly like the deathstar.’<br/>
‘Aw man,’ Rose lay back onto the dark metal grating, it poked uncomfortably into her through her padded jacket, ‘that sounds so fucking cool.’ She sucked at the fruit stuck in between her teeth.<br/>
Paige sprawled across her sister in a way she knew was annoying and uncomfortable, but to her surprise, Rose didn’t object, ‘yeah, it does sound cool.’<br/>
‘You’re gonna be a resistance hero.’ She spoke into the dead air above them, sucked into the gaps between the bombs. It was just a statement of fact.<br/>
‘I suppose so.’<br/>
Despite herself, Roses hand found the top of Paiges’s head and she stroked her fringe absent-mindedly, staring into the rows and rows above her. Her other hand made its way to her own neck, pulling her half of their matching medallions out from underneath her clothes. She hadn’t even realised she was doing it until the familiar weight of golden metal was between finger and thumb. Paige did the same. They tinked them together in harmony with the weaponry rattling around. A time-honoured ritual.<br/>
Not a word was spoken between them. This delicate moment of sisterhood they both thought they’d surrendered to the rebellion guarded on all sides by heavy duty explosives.<br/>
Paige chuckled quietly, ‘when’d you get so grown up?’<br/>
Rose strained to catch the expression on Paige’s face, but it was clear, her eyes too were lost wandering amongst the rows.<br/>
‘What do you mean?’<br/>
‘Well,’ she shifted her shoulder, ‘not too long ago you couldn’t stand the thought of being the one left behind. I know you’ve always wanted to be a big hero and don’t think I didn’t notice how hard you’ve tried to get there.’<br/>
Roses throat prickled uncomfortably; she wasn’t sure if it was emotion on inhalation of freeze-dried fruit.<br/>
‘Without me noticing,’ Paige strained upward to meet Rose’s eyeline, ‘you’ve gotten all mature on me.’<br/>
It was definitely emotion.<br/>
She cracked a shitty joke through watery eyes, ‘I didn’t grow, you just sunk to my level.’<br/>
Paige snorted and intentionally shoved her head hard into Roses stomach.<br/>
‘Oof,’ she huffed, grabbing her into a headlock as she screeched in protest, laughing with her sister.</p><p>-</p><p>A set of authoritative-sounding footsteps rang out at the far end of the loading dock and they both shot into a sitting position, only a little out of breath and suppressing a child-like giggle.<br/>
Paige was a quicker thinker, ‘yes, so I just use the oil from the red bins for it then?’ She called out a little too loudly to be convincing.<br/>
‘Y-yeah!’ Rose was worse, ‘exactly right ma’am!’<br/>
Paige winced, ‘ma’am??’ she hissed.<br/>
Rose shrugged exaggeratedly, ‘I’ll be on my way then ma’am, lots to fix!’<br/>
Paige raised her eyebrows exaggeratedly and whispered, ‘Again?!’ Shooing her giggling sister away.<br/>
Tucking her medallion back under her shirt Rose hopped down with a mock salute and nodded toward the pilots making their way past.<br/>
‘I’ll stick around pod bay 3 if you want to call in before you ship out,’ Rose called up into the ship, ‘extension code 228-‘<br/>
‘313!’ Paige’s distant voice finished off for her, ‘I promise!’<br/>
Rose stepped back and watched from the edge of the doorframe as her sister went back to sitting in the pilots chair, checking her status.</p><p>---</p><p>The rain drummed down to a light drizzle, but the heavy mist persisted. Rolling in over the hillside and sliding through the gaping doors of the rocky huts puckering out from the freshly drenched earth below. It slid in and coiled itself around Rey’s ankles as she straightened her stance and fixed the hunkered form of Luke sitting opposite her with an unwavering gaze.<br/>
He gave no move to indicate he had noticed that she was now aware of his presence, made no move to explain himself.<br/>
So, she moved instead, ‘I’m leaving.’<br/>
He cocked his head to the side and remarked, ‘much quicker to give up than I would have anticipated.’ Something in the way he said it unnerved Rey. She didn't enjoy people switching demeanour on her for better or for worse.<br/>
She sneered at him defensively, cocking her staff to one side, ‘I'm not giving up, old man, and I'm certainly not going to beg. I'm moving on. I won’t stand around and wait on a fairy tale to save me. I’ve learnt my lesson, I’ll help myself.’<br/>
She found it easiest to cut him off from her altogether. It wasn’t hard, once she had figured out how to do it for the parents that had dropped her to rot amongst the growing husks of ancient battlefields, it was pretty easy to do the same for anyone else.<br/>
He raised his brow, impressed, ‘that's a more mature approach than I expected you to take if I'm being honest.’<br/>
‘Well, don't be then.’<br/>
It sounded like a good comeback as she stepped out of the door of the hut and headed back down to where she knew the falcon was parked. </p><p>-</p><p>Skating her shoes along a wet rock she almost collided with a nest of porgs. The things swarmed over the rocks down at the lower levels. Their nests littered the shoreline giving easy access to slip amongst the waves and pull all manner of vulnerable sea life from the murky depths below.</p><p>She ducked under the far edge of the ship and called out to her co-pilot. No response.<br/>
Cursing the Wookie under her breath she started feeling around where she knew the edge of the hatch door was. Hoping for a latch, a button maybe, a good old-fashioned hand scanner even. Anything.<br/>
She made a fist and started banging on the thing, yelling ‘CHEWIE, LET ME IN. WE’RE LEAVING.’<br/>
In response hearing the tell-tale rumble of a muffled Wookie echoing from inside, followed by a muffled crash.<br/>
‘Fuck’s he doing,’ she muttered, standing back in case the hatch shot open like it was prone to.<br/>
Right on cue it popped and a small flock of all too familiar egg-shaped birds exploded out from the ship like it was giving violent birth to a full nest.<br/>
Chewie was right on their heels, wielding what looked suspiciously like a piece of the interior wall in his unwieldy paws.<br/>
Hopping over the little thing Rey asked, ‘what do you think you’re doing? I asked you to look after the ship, not start a breeding programme.’<br/>
Chewie made a suspiciously regretful sounding growl at that particular remark.<br/>
‘What, what did you do?’</p><p>-</p><p>In fairness, when she and Finn had tried to fix this particular part of the ship, they hadn’t bothered to drill it back into place. But even given that she wasn’t willing to shoulder the blame of the porgs nest sitting where a hyper jump system should be.<br/>
‘Great. We’re not getting off this hunk without a system to break the atmosphere now are we.’<br/>
Chewie grumbled something about it not being his fault, he hadn’t seen them sneak on. She waved him away.<br/>
‘I don’t care right now. Let’s just get to sleep, we’ll deal with this in the morning.’<br/>
Chewie howled after her as she headed toward the bunks, stopping her cold for just a second, ‘he’s not coming.’<br/>
Then, after giving it some thought, ‘I’m sorry.’</p><p>---</p><p>‘Sorry! Sorry, that tube didn’t look like it was attached to anything!’<br/>
Finn winced, ‘ah, no problem. You couldn’t tell.’<br/>
Poe plugged it back in from where he’d attempted to free his friend from his water-logged cell of a bed. The two had grown more impatient, wanting to explore the base together to catch up in a more natural way. And, more importantly, in a way where Finn could remember.</p><p>BB-8 piped up, attempting to swerve between the legs of the stool Poe was sitting on almost causing him to rip out the tube again.<br/>
‘Hey, that’s a thought!’ He replied, knowing Finn would ask he explained, ‘BB’s going to ask the droid to check if its ok to get you out yet.’<br/>
Finn nodded, a look of understanding smoothing his features, ‘right! Good idea. I didn’t think the little guy could do that, I wasn’t sure if droids all spoke the same language or whatever.’<br/>
Poe cocked his head. ‘Huh. I never thought about that.’<br/>
Before he had a chance to ask BB-8 however, the little medical bot was zipping along its track to the little cat-door-like hole that opened up for it. Apparently, the master list of people’s vitals couldn’t be accessed by someone on that droid’s level, BB was explaining to his companion, so the little one was going to ask a superior about Finn’s condition.<br/>
‘Great,’ Poe nodded, ‘d’ya think you could pick up on their communication, so the little droid doesn’t have to wheel all the way back?’<br/>
BB bobbled in agreement and began circling the small room, Poe pulling his knees up to his chest to avoid the droid crashing into him which amused the still vaguely delirious Finn to no end.</p><p>BB-8 abruptly pulled up short in the opposite corner and after listening for a moment began screeching in a very worried tone.<br/>
‘Woah! Woah, there buddy, I can’t understand you when you get like this. Slow down, what’s wrong?’ Poe pushed off of the stool and knelt down to the panicked unit.<br/>
BB-8 began a series of rapid but understandable beeps and Poes expression melted into one of shock.<br/>
‘Like, now? Why? No one consulted me or anything!’<br/>
He stood up and made a hasty line for the door and headed to the exit for the med-bay. Holding his hand up to the keypad all the colour drained from his face.<br/>
The passcode.<br/>
Leia had just waved it open for him; he was trapped in there.<br/>
Finns voice echoed down to him, ‘what’s going on?’<br/>
Pacing agitatedly Poe called back, ‘BB picked up a communication from another droid saying that they were moving all the ships I had requested for my mission back into storage.’<br/>
‘Mission?’<br/>
Poe speed-walked up to the ajar door of Finns pod and began, ‘ok, so the first orders big fuck-off ship is chasing us right now and we really don’t have a lot to fight back with.’<br/>
He could already see Finns expression darkening in fear.<br/>
‘And we’re running real low on fuel and literally forever away from a good evacuation site. Shit sit. That's short for situation. So, I hopped in a ship and took BB to take out their big cannon on the side so we could, y’know, slow down and conserve fuel because at the moment all we are doing is running.’<br/>
‘The thing is, kinda fucked that up. Missed altogether actually. Leia was mad. Turns out it's a pretty big target, so I reserved a bunch of ships, a bunch of bombs, bomber ships, just whatever we had on board like I'm supposed to instead of just jacking 'em. And I was going to take them over once they’d been inspected but now BB-8 is hearing that they’re putting the whole lot away!’<br/>
Finn, utterly incapable of comprehending a word, instead drank in the way Poe changed his attitude when stressed. He was the sort to keep his cards close to his chest, below his shirt given a chance, guarding him like a bullet proof vest. He’d heard the guy stand up to torture that snapped the toughest individials dragged onto the first orders decks first-hand. But here, there was a furiosity behind him Finn hadn’t seen yet. Caring was a vulnerable place to put yourself in, cards on the table.<br/>
/Too bad I wont remember, huh./ He thought, watching Poe shove himself bodily off of the door frame and stomp over to the general Med bay pod door again</p><p>Finding a communicator, he pressed the out button and said, ‘hey this is Commander Poe Dameron, I need to get out of Med I got locked in by mistake. I need to see to my ships.’<br/>
There was static at the other end for a heart dropping moment before a voice replied, ‘Poe Dameron?’<br/>
‘Yeah, I need to get out of Med and to my ships. Apparently theres been some kind of mixup and they’re being put away? My mission relies entirely on those bombs.’<br/>
‘S-‘ the voice was cut off. All there was to hear was an unsteady static and the unmistakable ripple of bangles jangling together. It seemed as if the mic had been palmed.<br/>
‘Poe.’ Leia’s warm voice moved through the speaker.<br/>
‘General,’ he sighed, relieved, ‘whatever happened, I need someone to get my ships back out there.’<br/>
‘Actually Dameron, that won’t be necessary.’<br/>
A beat, ‘what?’<br/>
‘After your reckless behaviour this morning, taking a ship without permission, lying to people about having permission for these ships now, showing a complete disregard for your life and subsequently the lives of others I have made the decision to relieve you of your title as captain effective immediately.’<br/>
Poe was silent.<br/>
‘Now, regarding your current status; we will keep you as a pilot on general probation. This means no flying, of course. If you truly care about the resistance you will accept my decision as it is one that upholds a core principle of ours, Dameron, and that is every life is precious and worth protecting. Even your own.’<br/>
‘General, with all due respect, we have to take out th-‘<br/>
‘Extend that respect toward yourself, Poe. If you want to be given the responsibility and power that a Commander holds you need to prove yourself.’<br/>
The line cut out.</p><p>-</p><p>Rose’s line cut off again and Paige sighed dramatically as she re-typed in the extension code for the third time.<br/>
‘Sorry, sorry, can you start that sentence again my end cut out’<br/>
‘Why’s it keep doing that?’ Rose mumbled as some loud-mouth droid clanked past the dead-end she’d parked herself in.<br/>
‘I'm a pilot, not a communications expert. You’re the mechanic!’<br/>
‘You can do better than that.’<br/>
Paige glanced out over the metropolitan of blinking lights at her fingertips and snorted.<br/>
But before she had the chance to return a quip worthy of her rank as the smarter sister, the loud beep of an interrupted again. They were more frequent than before.<br/>
She groaned dramatically and placed the earpiece between cheek and shoulder instead of setting it down to re-type Rose’s extension, in no hurry to quell the spark of friendship they’d truly begun to re-kindle.<br/>
‘Hello?’<br/>
A voice she knew but couldn’t place almost shocked her into dropping the receiver, ‘oh! Hello?’<br/>
/Shit, had the interruptions been incoming calls or something?/<br/>
Overly enthusiastic celebration blasted her from the other end for a confusing moment before he said, ‘hey! Is this one of the bombers I asked for?’<br/>
Paige quickly put a face to the voice, ‘Commander Dameron, is it?’<br/>
There was a weighted pause at the other end, ‘yeah. That’s me. Uh, has the bridge gotten in contact with you? It should’ve shown up on your communicator or whatever.’<br/>
There was the concrete explination of what had been interrupting her and Rose’s calls, ‘oh, uh, sorry they got mixed up or something I’m so sorry, was I meant to head out?’<br/>
‘Do you have clearance?’<br/>
She shrugged. Then remembered this was a call and not a face-to-face interaction, ‘who’s gonna get in the way of a bomber?’<br/>
Another quick celebration at the other end to her surprise, ‘great! Wonderful, and you’ve had a mechanic look over it?’<br/>
‘Ah, Rose Tico came past, yes.’ Although little maintenance had been performed on her ship, she wasn’t about to get her into trouble.<br/>
‘Sounds great, I’ll stay on the line to, uh, guide you on your mission, alright?’<br/>
‘You won’t be out, Commander?’ She began prepping the ship to move.<br/>
‘Ah, no,’ a heavy pause, ‘I uh, injured myself on my initial test flight, can’t be in the thing myself but I will happily direct you from the ground, ok?’<br/>
This was a little unorthodox, but, ‘sure, no problem.’</p><p>‘Oh, Commander?’<br/>
‘Mm?’<br/>
‘Before I launch can I make a separate call, just quickly?’<br/>
‘No!’ His reply came immediate, taking Paige aback.<br/>
‘Uh, it’ll be super-fast, I just want to call my sister.’ She pressed, not one to drop a promise.<br/>
His next reply was slower, regretful to a point, ‘I can’t explain why just now, but I have to ask you don’t take any other calls until you’re back. Can you trust me on that?’<br/>
She wasn’t sure. Although Poe Dameron held a good rank in the resistance, they’d never really met face-to-face more than once or twice in passing. His choppy last mission didn’t inspire a lot of confidence in his tactical smarts.<br/>
But his firey passion, that was something she could stand behind.<br/>
‘Alright. I’ll stay on the line.’<br/>
‘Good girl. Ready to launch, pilot?’<br/>
She readied herself, ‘yes, sir!’<br/>
He chucked, the zing a good mission brought to him creeping into the edges of his voice, ‘you’re going to be a hero.’</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>(For scene 1)<br/>228 313 is a totally random number, sorry</p><p>(For scene 2)<br/>Yeah that was an arrested development reference i do not know why. its just vague enough to miss so i think it flies</p><p>(For scene 4)<br/>There are probably not cat doors in star wars but i mentioned it because there are ones on earth and that is where you live. Poe does not need to know the similarities I am drawing he is not my target audience<br/>Also, the computer keeps insisting furiosity is not a word for whatever reason i assure you its real<br/>if you can see that i am publishing this at 3 am, no you cant</p><p>(i genuinely thought i would get around to kyle this chapter, guess not)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. A lot about soup (for whatever reason)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A little catchup with Rey and Hux (separately)<br/>We'll get onto that bombing next chapter I promise (ooo how fun)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rey was awoken by a porg settling into the crook of her neck. She’d been able to ignore the one under her arm and the three or four chirruping gently from undisclosed locations in the room for the sake of sleep, but it was really beginning to piss her off.<br/>
Picking the little guy up by the scruff of its neck she ignored the gargled screeching noise the fellow made as she placed it more gently than she felt it deserved onto the floor. Swinging her legs out from the bunk and almost squishing a second underfoot.<br/>
This was unacceptable.<br/>
Pulling her staff off of the wall she rolled her neck and prepared to get bopping until her stomach released a long, low growl.</p><p>Minuets later finding the demolished ship pantry, she began mentally listing the ways she was about to skin and barbecue these things.</p><p>Rey clambered down, out of the ship, and set off to do what she did best. Forage.<br/>
The mist that had settled down over the island like a down blanket the night before still hung as heavily in the air, flowing over the falcon and effectively hiding it from the world above. The fog stained rough golden orange by the emerging suns over the horizon.<br/>
Hang on, that can’t be right. Rey turned back to look over the water again. Two suns.<br/>
She watched them creep upward, wondering how they found room in the sky to roll across it together. She’d never seen anything like it.<br/>
Her stomach, however, couldn’t care less.</p><p>When it came down to the physical act of slicing the head off of a living creature, Rey surprised herself in how reluctant she was toward the act. It wasn’t as if she was incapable of cruel actions. Petty theft could be excused under the motivation of survival. But the burn she still felt in the skin along her spine when she recalled the ease with which she sliced her saber down toward Ren on his back in the snow. The flurry of flakes flecking her skin, hitting the blade and coming back as steam. She couldn’t pretend she didn’t hear the crunch of snow underfoot, the hiss of evaporation, the sizzle of skin. That was never survival.<br/>
Still, she didn’t really want to kill the porg. They stank like shit anyway.</p><p>Giving up on an aimless wander along the shoreline she turned back to the path she had come down from the village. Contemplating how she would hold herself were she to run into Skywalker again, she came across a small gathering of the alien women beginning their day. They didn’t seem bothered by her presence. One, a little bow tied at her neck to hold her pinafore in place, she recognised. She nodded to it, not offering a smile. To her confusion it responded by pointing to a slightly larger hut Rey hadn’t given the time to look at before. Not knowing how to respond she simply nodded again and began hiking back up the path like there was a chance she knew where she was going.<br/>
The woman shook her head curtly and began waddling over.<br/>
Again, not really knowing how to respond Rey stopped walking and found herself awkwardly waiting for the waddler to make her way over.<br/>
The woman took her time tugging at Rey’s forearm and began leading her toward that hut.</p><p>She wasn’t sure what she expected to find inside. A place to sacrifice people perhaps, a jail, even an artifact that Rey had accidentally ruined without knowing wouldn’t have surprised her in the slightest.<br/>
Instead, a long, crude table greeted her. It was neatly piled with all manner of food. From small, dried creatures to lovingly scored loaves of crusty breads to baskets full of berries. Mesmerised, Rey let herself be pulled like a child to the end of a line of yet more of these women waiting with a bowl in hand to serve themselves a ladleful of the main attraction. A beautiful cauldron of stew simmered invitingly over a hearth warming the room, seeping into Rey from the soles of her feet to her very soul itself as a hand carved bowl was gently shoved into her hands and she moved with the line.<br/>
A large ladle went in deep and came back spilling over with thick soup sporting chunks of vegetables and meats that Rey couldn’t care less about the origins of. Steam curled delicately around her face bathing her in herbs and butters. The soup itself shone with a light slick of oil on its surface that bent and flowed seamlessly as the liquid billowed into the bowl. Rich, creamy depths of colour spilled into one another and shone with the brilliance of the suns rising reliably through the doorway.<br/>
The woman guided her through breads and garnishes in a dream as Rey stared deliriously into her bowl, capable only of following as she was led to a chair that was far too small and handed a spoon.<br/>
Only remembering to thank her when the bowl was scraped clean.<br/>
Although neither spoke a word the other could understand Rey managed to explain that she wanted to take some of this back with her for her friend. This was agreed to as long as she promised to bring a portion to Luke who was most likely still asleep. He often missed out on the morning congregation despite contributing more than his fair share to the spread.</p><p>Rey only remembered to be suspicious again when pieces of slate were being sat into the string bag to keep the jars of soup insulated. The language barrier was suddenly cause for panic. She tried to ask what she needed to do to pay for this, realising she had locked herself into a good few hour of scrubbing steps, pushing a wheelbarrow, digging a farm. The woman’s kind reproach superseded words. There was nothing expected in return, this was the way of the island.</p><p>Walking across the hillside she marvelled at this kind gesture. At first, deeply moved. This warm feeling of kindness was quickly replaced by a little voice in the back of her mind asking if that this meant she hadn’t had to suffer in the way Jakku had taught her to for a lifetime. Not knowing if that meant she was supposed to sob or scream she ignored the thought altogether and quickened her pace.</p><p>She found herself at the entrance to the hut Luke was still asleep inside of faster than she wanted to. Made quick work of unpacking what she had taken to be his portion, placing it onto one of the stone slabs.<br/>
Righting herself with the aid of her staff her side bag was far lighter but the weight on her mind more than made up for it.<br/>
Nothing on this little rock made any sort of sense to her.<br/>
Yesterday, it had been very easy. Luke did not want to teach her, so she did not need him. Simple, cut and dry. Move out, move on. Put it away.<br/>
So why was it she unable to move her feet from his doorstep.<br/>
This was not the residence of Luke Skywalker, resistance figurehead and intergalactic hero. It was the stone hut of a cranky hermit that she wanted nothing to do with. It was easy to move on from him. She’d given up on her own parents like that. Who was he? Nobody! That’s who. A fairy tale, a bedtime story to give little kids hope. Propaganda to pretend the first order wasn’t looming. He was no one at all so she should just walk away.<br/>
There were other people who could train her.<br/>
She should just turn around and walk right back down that path there.<br/>
Right next to her.<br/>
Here we go.<br/>
Just turn, and head back to Chewie.<br/>
Come on, one, two, three, go.<br/>
Go.<br/>
The soups going to get cold.<br/>
Just go.<br/>
Let go.<br/>
Let him go, Rey.<br/>
Go.<br/>
Move your stupid feet.<br/>
Go on.<br/>
‘Kid.’<br/>
…<br/>
‘They told me to bring you soup.’<br/>
‘That one yours?’<br/>
…<br/>
‘No.’<br/>
Go, Rey.<br/>
‘Who’s it for then?’<br/>
Just walk away.<br/>
‘Hellllo?’<br/>
Just turn around, and head back down the path.<br/>
‘What, do I have something on my face? What’s the laser gaze for.’<br/>
Unclench your jaw.<br/>
‘Kid, are you going to stand there and stare at me all day.’<br/>
Unclench your fist.<br/>
‘Hey I- ho now.’</p><p>He was staring at something just behind her and Rey suddenly found herself able to move just in time to turn her head and see a stray wheelbarrow flop back onto the ground. She looked down at her hand, where her grubby fingernails had dug angry little crescent moons into her palms.<br/>
Had she done that?<br/>
‘Chewie.’<br/>
‘What?’ He replied, snapping his focus back to her as she adjusted the string of her shoulder bag and found herself able to unstick her feet.<br/>
‘Soups for Chewie.’<br/>
And she headed back down the path, pretending to be unaware of the man scuttling impatiently three feet behind her asking, ‘did you say Chewie?’<br/>
---</p><p>General Hux tapped his foot impatiently at the last of the gathering congregation scuttling thought the door. Gazing out across the table of subordinates before him.<br/>
What had it been since he last heard even a word from him? Two, three, days? Was he expected to continue ruling in Kylo Ren’s stead? Not that he was complaining, of course. It was just that if he was ruler of a galactic superpower, he wouldn’t spend a week skulking away after some fight with a prisoner he’d failed to keep.<br/>
Just this morning Hux had been borderline humiliated by a cheeky pilot because the dumb kid thought it might be fun, and the little shit had gotten away with his soul intact.</p><p>‘General, may I ask what you called this meeting for?’<br/>
Hux glared at the asker.<br/>
He had hoped that Ren would be forced to attend any and all meetings on principle alone.</p><p>Very well, if he wasn’t able to lead, someone would have to step up. There was no one better qualified.</p><p>‘Sir there is a p-‘<br/>
‘Did I ask you to speak?’ He snapped at the second person to open their mouth, ‘Better yet, did you notice that your leader has abandoned you? I’m not sure what the official rules state on this matter but I believe that there should be a serious reconsideration of someone who does not even care to show up to a meeting.’<br/>
This was met by a smattering of awkward glances across the table. Some read as confused, concerned, disgusted even, though it was not clear who the disgust was directed toward.</p><p>A familiar voice filled the room, although barely louder than someone idly pointing out the pattern of the wallpaper it had a tone to it that grew to fill every corner of the space it inhabited, ‘general Hux, since you are so curious, I would remind you that I do not need to be physically present to attend or oversee any part of the first orders operations.’<br/>
The general prickled, feeling Kylo Ren’s eyes on his neck. Though the room behind him was empty.<br/>
‘Everyone, return to your posts.’ Ren’s tone was bored, but underpainted with a dry anger that he clearly didn’t care to hide.<br/>
Now, the presence felt pointed as if spoken to him through a tube, ‘and I will ask you this once to not undermine me in such a blatant manner.’ Hux felt his chest rasp as it struggled to pull air in, he was not being outright choked. Just having enough air withheld to make him strain in a very undignified manner.<br/>
For the billionth time General Hux cursed whatever part of his genes was responsible for his lack of force awareness. Realising now that there was a chance that Ren had seen and heard everything that had happened, only from a distance.</p><p>‘Right, well, you heard him then,’ he rasped reluctantly, feeling the Leaders pointed presence ebb away from him, ‘return to your stations.’</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I honestly intended to do the whole bombing scene this chapter, but Reys section took on such a life of its own!<br/>My writing style is so embarrassingly loose. I know where I want the characters to go, and I know how they react to stimuli, so I just let them move through the world as naturally as I can.<br/>Sometimes that results in a three page internal ramble about soup! What of it!<br/>Thank you so much for reading!! &lt;333<br/>???! just checked and i have 50 hits? dude thanks</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Also! I’m not an expert on star wars cannon, so if there is pieces of lore I could incorporate (or things you’d like me to throw my grubby little writing hands at) please leave me a comment!! I will mostly surfing my way around lore and focusing on what is fun and sexy for me. Berate me if you must but do remember the actual franchise decided that that old dude was still alive for NO reason, so.<br/>This is my first ever fic (and the only one I’ve read is my immortal) so I am not sure what I am doing lol.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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